In the final episode of the series, Angela discussed how X-ray CT techniques can reveal the internal structure of solid-form tablets and capsules and drug delivery devices and explained how these CT images can be used to derive quantitative analysis results.
The performance of materials with complex internal structures, such as composites, forms, and porous materials, is often defined by their internal structures. As the resolution improved and image segmentation and quantitative analysis techniques advanced, X-ray CT has become an essential analytical tool to study these materials. Here are examples of the CT application in materials science:
Cracks, voids, and inclusions: CT uncovers internal defects in various solid parts, such as metals, ceramics, and polymers, helping engineers identify failure mechanisms and optimize process conditions.
Pore size, distribution, and network: Once pores are imaged using CT, they can be quantitatively analyzed for the pore shape factors, sizes, and locations. This is a common application used to study foams and rocks. You can also investigate pore networks in 3D and assess the materials' strength, density, and permeability.
Fibers and delaminations in composites: High-ressolution CT resolves individual carbon or glass fibers and reveals hidden delaminations or voids in composite materials, helping diagnose failure modes and optimizing process conditions.
Fiber orientation and matrix segmentation: The segmentation of fibers from the matrix and tracing individual fibers has become easier with deep learning image analysis tools, even in low-contrast scans. The results provide a detailed map of fiber orientation and distribution, allowing detailed evaluation of filter performance and flow simulation.
Structural integrity of aerospace and automotive parts: CT also helps ensure the integrity and the strength of critical components used in aerospace and automotive. CT can nondestructively identify cracks and voids. In addition, CT can produce a digital twin of the component and allow comparison to CAD to check the design integrity or stress simulation to identify vulnerable parts.
You might already be familiar with the CT applications to the materials you study. In that case, I hope you gain some inspiration from how other research areas use CT.
What is your favorite part of conducting research? Digging through hundreds and thousands of papers to know where you can find useful data, what is already known, what questions still need to be answered, etc., and keeping track of who said what where, is probably not one of them.
This is going to date me, but I used a library copy machine and Microsoft Access to keep track of all the papers during my graduate school days. More recently, tools like Google Scholar and Zotero became available, and they saved tons of time.
Then, I found Elicit. If you are a researcher and haven't tried it yet, I'd recommend you take a look.
A collection of priceless and embarrassing moments curated by Sam Robles.
Carlos was on vacation last week, so I worked with our video editor, Sam, to put this video together to help you get to know Angela and Ted. We hope you enjoy it.
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Hungarian biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. (16 September, 1893 – 22 October 1986)
"Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought."
That's a wrap. Please let us know how we can help you learn more about X-ray CT. We love to hear from you!
